STG Investigative Report : Tela Vasir
by LogicalPremise
Summary: An STG report about Tela Vasir, asari Spectre. Set just after the Butcher appears in TWCD. Covers history, tactics, and abilities. Part of my Mass Effect AU.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** _Timeframe on this is just after the Butcher's appearance._

* * *

 **-STG – STG – STG-**

STG Report on Spectre Agent Tela Vasir

Senior Agent Vahtien to the STG Master

As requested, I've put together an initial briefing document covering everything we currently know regarding Tela Vasir, the second-senior most Spectre currently operating in the Spectre Corps. I'm not sure why there is a sudden interest in this particular Spectre, although I suspect you are reviewing all strong asari after the Butcher incident.

Even among asari Spectres, Vasir stands out.

Most asari who are chosen to serve in the Spectres do so for perhaps fifty to sixty years, rarely more than a century. Vasir, on the other hand, has been a Spectre for _four hundred years_ , with a mission success rating of 94.4% and a staggering twelve thousand confirmed kills. Given her long exposure to the sort of training available to Spectres, as well as her other connections, she is skilled in almost every possible field.

As with all reports, by necessity, this document is not all inclusive with details, but instead provides high-order information that can be queried in depth at a later time. There are sixteen subfile reports on various Spectre operations, three more on connections to the Shadow Broker, and nine reports on communications intercepts.

This file is classified Dashan-Black and is the forty-seventh file of this classification. This is fifth iteration of this file since Vasir became a Spectre.

 **Caution : Read FIRST:**

As usual, most if not all information on Vasir is based on four sources: existing historical accounts records, eye-witness accounts, extranet information, and accumulated scans and examinations. Under no circumstances can this file be assumed complete, and as always assume that this file is a _baseline_ of his abilities, not a comprehensive coverage. Vasir is known for having trained herself in a vast number of fields of combat, and is likely to have concealed some of her skills from observation.

Some additional information has been compiled from Spectre reports, but keep in mind – these are neither vetted by the STG nor in many cases verifiable.

Vasir is as practitioner of an obscure form of the asari biotic charge known as the star kanquess. Unlike the standard sword kanquess, the star kanquess creates a sort of 'wreath' of warp energies around the biotic as she charges, often leaving a trail that explodes into the target once she connects. This is not similar to the human nova – the warpfire tends to 'flash' into a roughly starlike shape upon impact and will lash in all directions, burning anything within several meters.

Vasir has studied extensively under both Blademistress Aethyta Vasir and Blademistress S'athen T'Shora, and is considered a lesser blade-mistress herself.

* * *

 **-STG – STG – STG-**

 **TELA VASIR, SIXTH-BORNE OF THE HOUSE OF VASIR TRIERSAN**

* * *

 **Overview:**

 _Formal Titles_ : High Agent of the Office of Special Tactics and Reconnaissance, Grand Huntress of the First Serrice Huntress Guard. Princess (Deferee) of the House of Vasir Triersan.

 _Nicknames_ : Blue Death

 _Race_ : Asari. Genetically, of the Thirty.

 _Age and sex_ : Seven hundred and sixty four years of age. Monogender. No _known_ offspring.

 _Wealth:_ _Extremely wealthy. Personal liquid wealth is modest (estimated at four to six million credits), but owns a weapons collection roughly valued at one hundred seventy million credits, including the war-hammer of the Krogan Emperor, a rachni war-glaive, and the first M-76 Revenant. Other holdings include very expansive estates on Kuras, a third-stage asari/turian colony, and an expensive apartment on the Citadel near the Consort._

 _Psychological Summary_ : Tela Vasir fits best into the Cynical/Pragmatic quadrant of logical personalities. While she values friends and allies, she will not hesitate to turn on them if required for her own survival or the completion of a critical mission. Vasir has never bonded deeply with any being, and prefers not even to meld for pleasure except for an extremely limited number of people, mostly professionals working for the Consort. This is highly unusual, almost pathological, among asari.

 _Military Summary_ : Spent fifty years in the ranks of the militia before joining a huntress clan and taking up the path of the huntress. Upon mastery of the star kanquess she was forced to become lodge mistress when the previous mistress was killed by ardat-yakshi. Vasir pursued and destroyed the AY, highly impressing three Justicars. When the position for a Spectre came open she was the only candidate. Maintains a military rank and participation in huntress and militia events, as well as (on paper) some level of naval rank.

 _Education:_ _Standard asari education for non-heir offspring of one of the Thirty. Extensive personal training in electronics, forgery, law, medicine, and chemistry. Holds a doctorate in Applied Forensics from the University of Serrice. Self-taught in several other fields._

 _Employment_ : Council Spectre. Probably Shadow Broker asset.

 _Significant Family_ : Many inside of House Vasir. Related by marriage to House Vabo, House T'Soni and House Devir. Only close to one aunt, Aethyta Vasir (see subfile 99438df-OMEGA, Burning of Omega, Casualties)

 _Overall Threat Rating:_ Black-Collapse Five.

* * *

 **Historical Notes:**

Tela Vasir is the longest serving Spectre in the history of the Corps. Only Saren and Jondam Bau have exceeded her success rate, and neither did so by any large margin. While she refuses to take a formal leadership role in the Spectres, deferring such to Bau, public opinion sees her as the most well known and famous of the group. Only Saren rivaled her popularity, mostly due to the fact that he engaged the public more openly than she has.

Much of her history prior to becoming a Spectre is rather mundane (and curiously difficult to find out details from). She was born into House Vasir and, despite having five sisters senior to her, was personally trained by the Matriarch at that time, Aethyta, in the art of warp bladedancing. After a short period of time in the personal Family militia, she entered the ranks of the Huntresses of Serrice.

Her career as a huntress was successful, but even this far back she was known to be somewhat reclusive and did not freely mingle with other asari in terms of melds.

Since becoming a Spectre, she has maintained a very high level of independence from direct Council oversight, with multiple sponsors and alliances making up the bulk of her funding. She focuses on her work, and is relentless when it comes to hunting down an enemy.

Vasir is not an enemy to be taken lightly – all aspects of her skillset, from criminal tracking to disguise, is very nearly perfect. She has had centuries of experience fighting the most dangerous foes in the galaxy and has _never_ been defeated in combat. Kills of note include a turian estimated to be on the level of a Praetor, several thresher maws (two on foot), a rogue Priestess of Athame, seventeen ardat-yakshi, and at least one recorded battle with P. that she was able to survive, although P. managed to escape.

Her Spectre career has four major (I.E., threatened galactic stability) operations – destruction of the Vithani crime syndicate (270 years ago, over seven hundred killed), assassination of turian separatist leader Ranith Felvarion (210 years ago), disruption of Blood Pack efforts to smuggle tainted eezo to CDEM supply channels (130 years ago), and prevention of assassination of Thana T'Armal (along with the human Tradius Ahern) roughly twenty years ago.

She has had over one hundred seventy 'important' operations, assassinations and counter-operations, and has received the Black Remembrance six times and the Citadel Cross of Valor four times.

* * *

 **Motivations:**

Tela Vasir's motives are, unfortunately, somewhat murky at best. She does not appear to place a great deal of respect or faith in either the Citadel Council or the asari Council of Matriarchs, and despite gathering a great amount of wealth does not look to be ready to quit being a Spectre anytime soon. She dislikes media attention, associates openly with less than twenty people, and rarely if ever lets down her guard.

The best projections we have is that Vasir, for whatever reason, is seeking simply to maintain her life as it is. How she will react as she approaches the age of becoming a matriarch is currently unclear. She professes no particular philosophy, and does not accept students or acolytes (aside from formal training duties as a Grand Huntress – but even these are usually delegated unless the trainee is a family member).

Vasir does not care much about money despite her wealth, has no business interests, does not bother with art or cultural acts, and has no known interests or hobbies aside from collecting famous weapons. While she does not associate much with her family, she places great value on blood relations and the only time she becomes emotional in battle is when they are threatened.

 **Organizations and Affiliations:**

Aside from the Spectres, Vasir has well known links with the Shadow Broker and the Vol Court of Corporations. She is very close friends with a handful of famous military figures – Praetor Invectus, Admiral Ahern, Lifemaster Fhron, and Dalatrass Muvai Solus are among them.

Aside from that she eschews almost all affiliations and is rarely, if ever, a participant in House Vasir business. She maintains no known interests in business (unlike almost all other Spectres) and when not on duty prefers to simply remain at home.

In the rare event Vasir desires sexual companionship, she appears to have a long-term contract with the Consort and will utilize the services of her acolytes for such. (As an aside, the Consort is surprisingly tight-lipped about such contacts, and the suite of rooms reserved for Vasir at her compound is shielded against spy-beams.)

 **Tactics:**

Vasir is a curious fighter – she specializes in nothing but is good at almost everything. She has a wide array of martial arts skills, practices sniping and close quarters melee weapons use religiously, and is a powerful biotic.

While a complete listing of her biotic abilities is not known at this time, she has demonstrated singularities, blades, multiple barrier and warpfire forms, as well as powerful flares.

Vasir's primary weapons are a heavily modified and re-chambered Spear of Athame battle rifle, which can be shifted from a DMR to a rapid-fire setting in less than a minute of reconfiguration. Secondary weapons include a pair of Devotee SMG's with hi-ex ammo, a set of mono-molecular throwing moons (half-curved hilt-less knives – asari specific weapons from the huntresses) and, oddly enough, a long spear with a triple-bladed, armor piercing mono-molecular tip and a kinetic impactor in the haft. She uses this weapon to hunt krogan.

Vasir also utilizes a warp sword, grenades, poisons and is very quick to use anti-biotic grenades and pulse dissapators.

Vasir's armor looks decorative, but was hand-crafted over two hundred years ago by Vntha Solus, a mastercrafter in the Guild of Armors and Protectives. It is comprised entirely of flash-forged titanium overlaid with Silaris plating and underlain with an ablative and shock-absorbing spall liner, worn over some form of kinetic nullification bodysuit. The large shoulder plate mounts a heavy shield generator and portions of the suit have omni-armor projectors.

 _Specific Tactical Methods, Ground Combat:_

Long range: At long range, Vasir will alternate between sniping and the use of high-impact biotics. Her goal a long range is usually to strip shields with the rifle, destroy cover before moving into closer range, and to asses the danger a target presents.

Vasir tends to utilize biotics at long range mostly to nullify counter-fire and enemy cover positions using shockwaves and warp if possible. Vasir's shockwave is some sort of modified version that is narrow in coverage but very strong and much longer ranged than any other observed shockwave.

Vasir has been observed using custom-built omni-drones as spotters when sniping. These drones can also allow her to use biotic long range bombardments (such as flare) without line of sight – taking these down should be a priority if engaging.

Medium range: Not recommended. Vasir is particularly lethal at mid-range, with allows her to bring her entire arsenal to bear with rapidity. Her use of pull and throw to fling targets around is also well known – agents are warned specifically against fighting Vasir in elevated areas.

Vasir has a fondness for using the terrain against enemies, either to pin them into a location where she can move to close range, or to box them into an area with poor cover and withdraw to long range to snipe or attack with area biotics. In urban combat she is especially deadly.

Vasir generally will close from long to medium range while escalating the amount of biotics thrown – she is strong enough to hurl multiple flares at once. Vasir will also use biotic powers such as reave and salvo (meteorfall variant) to disrupt and disable foes before closing range further.

Short range: At short range Vasir is simply not survivable. At the outer edges she will suppress enemies with targeted short bursts from the dual SMG's she carries – these use high explosive impact rounds that will almost certainly kill the target. Vasir will also tend to drop a shear (flense variant) at close range, detonating it with a throw – this has been known to literally tear people in half.

If closing from surprise, Vasir tends to throw several of her moon blades with powerful neurotoxins of some kind (possibly nexa beast venom, autopsies of victims show complete lock of all sodium nervous channels – the poison shuts down all involuntary and voluntary muscular activity).

Vasir will make heavy use of the star kanquess at this range, and the spread of the impact blast means evasion is very nearly impossible. Given her biotic strength, even a glancing hit is likely to incapacity any STG agents not cybernetically enhanced.

At melee range Vasir will shift to her warp sword. The style she uses is a linear one that focuses on decapitations and deathblows, and is somewhat weaker on defense, but incorporates heavy use of biotics with the off hand and is also utilized alongside her biotic charge. A combination of charge and a warp sword impact is extremely unlikely to be survivable.

Warning Advisory: Vasir's ability to shift from combat type to combat type is legendary – she has been known to hold off one opponent with a warp sword in one hand while firing accurately at incoming foes with an SMG in the other. Combine this with her nasty habit of trying to set where fights occur and trapping the area beforehand and combat can get out of hand quickly.

Vasir has no special immunity to gas attack or sonic attacks, and these are recommended. Her barrier is strong enough to repel all sniper attacks until it is weakened.

* * *

 **Physical Abilities:**

Vasir is _very_ strong for an asari and is much faster than most opponents. Despite wearing heavy armor and carrying a multitude of weapons, she is flexible and excellent at dodging attacks. While not as strong as a full-power batarian nor anywhere near as fast as a salarian, her abilities still far outstrip most combatants, and more importantly, she has centuries of experience in combat and her reflexes are outstanding.

Vasir has excellent eyesight and is a very talented sniper.

Vasir's right knee retains some damage from injuries taken during the Valxasian Incident (see subfile 44098-X-Turian Uprising) which makes it somewhat less flexible than her left, and can slow her down at times.

An ongoing operation is to use planted agents (based on her interactions with the Consort's personnel, turian females and human males seem to be her preference) to engage in sexual relations to ascertain any other physical weaknesses of note.

Like most asari, Vasir does not have any cyberware. It is believed (but not confirmed) that she has had bionetic muscle upgrades and bone weaves implanted, as she was able to remain fighting after being tackled by a krogan.

* * *

 **Mental and Psychological Notes:**

Vasir is smart but not brilliant – she was measured at 140 on the asari / human IQ scale and 55 of 70 on the turian scale. Her intellect is almost entirely turned to planning, preparation and the military arts – everything she studies is focused around that.

Vasir has a high rate of learning, particularly in focused environments, and is not a 'learn by doing type' based on observations. She is also somewhat slow to adapt to truly unexpected situations with many variables, a sign of a linear thinker.

Most Cynical/Pragmatic types will attempt to justify their actions, and Vasir is no different – the few public statements she have given indicates an almost frightening dedication to the concept of galactic stability for the many, even at the cost of death to minority groups. Vasir, while easy to work with according to Spectres, is a bigot and racist regarding the potential of other species, and has also gone on record suggesting asari should not deign to share leadership with lesser, more short sighted races.

Vasir's psychological state is believed to be damaged by unknown events – fragmented records from her time among the huntresses indicate she once was more open and even interested in history and the artistic aspects of the Hunting Lodges.

Vasir's one known psychological vulnerability (for certain strained uses of the word) is her self-confidence – she is unlikely to back down from any conflict and feels she is the match – or more likely, the better – of any opponents. While only a handful of people in the entire galaxy would be capable of matching her, a few of those would kill her with ease, a concept she has not accepted.

 **Notable Allies:**

Vasir has maintained a long relationship with the Shadow Broker, stemming over three hundred years and seven Brokers. It is estimated that the Broker provides roughly sixty to seventy percent of her funding, as well as high-level intelligence, various experimental or prototype equipment, and possibly combat support services as well.

Notations in Vasir's Spectre records would indicate she has not taken any active Spectre assignments that clash with Broker priorities, and more than once has used her office and Spectre resources to assist in various Broker operations.

Aside from her family, Vasir has no other close allies. Her Spectre partner, Nihlus Kryik, was slain during the opening of the Benezia Incident by Saren Arterius. She has maintained an antagonistic attitude towards being paired up again, although she agreed to be partnered with Spectre Shepard not too long before the latter's death. (Then again, as Shepard was married to Liara T'soni, her cousin, this would fit her normal modus persona of working only with family members. Kryik's father, after the death of his turian wife, was bonded with a Lesser House noble of House Vasir'a).

Of some note is a slight change after the death of Spectre Shepard – Vasir became much more aggressive in combat situations and has reduced the number of active operations she performs for the Shadow Broker. Observers indicate she was highly agitated after the death of Shepard and T'Soni and has remained that way until the present time.

 **Political and Social Notes:**

While not taking part in asari or even Citadel politics, Vasir's political outlook is known and can be derived both from the handful of public statements she has given as well as records from the asari e-democracy.

Vasir has no use for the clanless asari and thinks their influence should be reduced – a full third of her operations have been against powerful corporations on Ilium owned by clanless. Likewise, she is quietly but firmly antagonistic against the Salarian Union, particularly the SIX and the STG.

Vasir's statements about humanity are also inline with this thinking, as she feels they are less 'cousins' than children. Vasir's openly war-mongering stance when it comes to dealing with any threats to the Citadel (or herself) have given her some problems when she is dispatched on diplomatic missions – the turians dislike her immensely.

Vasir is not active politically, and has not endorsed or followed any matriarchs or other asari political figures.

Vasir's social life is a blank, not due to lack of data but lack of interest on her part. Aside from her work, she leads a remarkably empty and lonely existence. Xenopsychological research suggests this is due to her compartmentalizing her life due to the often dangerous lifestyle of a Spectre, but other possibilities include the death of an unknown bondmate.

* * *

 **-STG – STG – STG-**

 **Warnings:**

The following advisories are considered mandatory reading.

 **Combat without explicit STG approval prior to initiation is FORBIDDEN.** As a Council Spectre in the highest standing and authority, hostile actions against Vasir are tantamount to defying the Citadel. If combat entails, units are to fall back and disengage, or engage in protocol Murhsa and engage ocular flash-bangs and suicide implants.

 **Close-range to medium-range combat is contraindicated.** Assuming STG permission is given, Vasir's unique and powerful kanquess means that, despite the dangers of remaining at long range, it is more survivable than closing into a range where she can bring her full roster of biotics to bear. Multiple snipers along with heavy weapons suppression is recommended if she is to be neutralized, combined with gas and/or sonic bombardment.


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N:** Timeframe on this is about a year after Shepard's death._

* * *

Tela Vasir sighed as she disgustedly pulled off the front plate of her armor, wincing in pain from the bruises on her lower right side. She finished taking the armor plate off, dropping it on the thick carpeting of her Citadel apartment overlooking the Lower Concourse of the Presidium, and then managed to sit down before her legs gave out on her, sprawling back on a reclining sofa.

As she let the tension drain out of her, she aimlessly glanced around the apartment. Taking up most of the top floor of the extruded shelf of rooms that extended from the sloped walls of the Presidium, the dominating features were the wide armaglass windows that looked out onto the lower levels and the black marble wall that took up most of the living area, festooned with famous weapons of all kinds.

She flinched as she took in the shape of the warp sword at the center of the display – the weapon of her aunt Aethyta, _Bloodwaves-Upon-Flesh_ , the only reminder she had of the woman who had literally raised her and cared for her.

The rest of the apartment was simplistic, if expensively furnished. No art adorned the walls. The kitchen was starkly functional, the bathing area's walls broken only by black shelves full of towels, and the sleeping area was a darkened alcove set into an armored niche and protected by dual kinetic barriers.

Vasir felt paranoia was simply judicious caution mocked by those too silly to understand the galaxy really _was_ out to get you.

For long minutes she just lay there on the couch. It was difficult letting the stress, pain and frustration slowly leech out of her battered body, but with meditation she was able to so. She was very glad this mission strand was over.

After almost nine exhausting months, she'd hunted down and killed the vile owner of a slave ring that used batarian biotech to modify asari slaves into pleasure girls. Tracking him to the deep parts of the poorly explored edges of the Volian Traverse, she'd had to evade a number of assassins and most of a private army to even reach his base.

And, then, the sick bastard had blown up his entire slave compound rather than surrender, killing over two hundred young asari – some of them not even sixty years of age – and leaving hundreds more with blindness and horrific burns that would never regenerate, on top of mental and emotional damage.

The batarian himself, Vhelgok Nathri, didn't get far in his escape attempt this time, and she'd taken exquisite pleasure in using her biotics to rip sections of cartilage and tissues out of his body one at a time until he collapsed, a sack of leaking torn flesh that collapsed into a pile of blood on the ground.

The Council wasn't too happy with that, they wanted him taken alive for trial. Vasir didn't give a shit, the asshole had been getting his slaves from the Broker, and if that came to light it would start a large number of problems.

It was just one more thing in a long list of things that made Vasir seriously reconsider coming clean to someone about her part in Spectre Shepard's death. The fact that her made-up story of geth in the Traverse had probably lead Shepard to her death was bad enough…and then the Broker ended up killing her cousin Liara, and Aethtya as well.

It had taken all of Vasir's willpower to not kill the Broker herself at that point. Shepard didn't deserve to die that way, in the horror she'd heard described. And certainly Auntie Eth didn't, or Liara. It had broken her further than she already was, until some day she felt so disconnected from the why and how of living that she was little more than an automaton.

The VI in her rooms pinged. "The bathing room is prepared. You have nineteen messages, none urgent or that bypass the filter."

She grunted at the VI as she forced herself to stand, peeling off the rest of armor and tossing it carelessly about as she made her way to the bathing pool room, where she submerged her body in hot water and buried her face in her hands. She heard the nearly silent hum of the mechs that kept the apartment clean shuffling about, picking up the armor and beginning their repair and cleaning routine.

She envied the mechs in their clear understanding of their role and place.

Her life, all told, had been a series of unbroken waves on an icy, cold sea that bordered nothing but wastelands. She'd been a disappointment to her mother, who wanted yet another scholar instead of a wild, willful child – but Auntie Eth, when she had time, had delighted in her. There were times it seemed like only Auntie Eth cared about her, the rest were so wrapped up in business and what not.

House Vasir was once mighty, but had been humbled via bad business decisions and foolishly backing House T'Sael instead of House T'Armal during the Silent War, the hidden war of the Thirty scrambling for power in the wake of the fall of the Silent Queen. The loss of most of their holdings did not cripple their finances, but made them even more insular, cruel and perfectionist than other asari of the Thirty.

For a little girl who was more interested in smiles and history and watching the seashore, it was a brutal family to be born into, and more brutal to be different.

Her earliest memories of 'home' were of little comfort. She grew up on the cold, cruel slopes of Mount Asathien, the Skyneedle that Athame used to sew the cloak of the night sky. A hateful spike of icy rock, the city of Nathai was carved and hacked from the frost-rampant foothills into harsh, geometric shapes. No brown walls of comfort decorated the home of the Vasir, nothing but utterly smooth faces of polished granite towering six hundred feet into the air and over a hundred feet thick. Nothing had ever challenged the holdfast that was Nathai.

She was matched against her sisters and often failed, and was harshly belittled. She never understood then why everyone was so cold and hateful, or why when other Houses arrived she was shoved into back rooms and told to be silent.

When it became clear she was not suited to high finance or more scholarly pursuits, she was forcefully shoved into one of the Huntress Lodges near Serrice for a few months to pick up the basics of combat, then tossed into the Serrician Militia and forgotten.

Just as she didn't understand why her family (except Aethtya) was so cruel, she didn't know why they would toss her into the commoner militia back then – only later did she discover her ugly secret ,that her mother's bondmate was not actually her aithntar. Rumors abounded about who it could be – lewd ones suggesting Aethtya herself, alone after Benezia's running off with a turian, could have done it with her own sister. Others suggested it was Vanhi T'Soni, now the favored child of the House.

Tela never found out, but it was clear that she was _pureblood_ and unwelcome. It was kept very quiet of course – no one outside of the House would hear of it – but it cemented her outlook on life at the age of seventy, when on her birthing day only Auntie Eth - spending thousands of credits to travel halfway across the galaxy and taking a break from her mercenary company to see her – even bothered to come by and speak with her.

She never forgot Auntie Eth's words. "They don't like you? Fuck 'em, kid. You be you. Never change, never bend, and never break. Either you'll convince them or you won't, but if you don't change you won't have to ask yourself if you have any value."

Tela had kept that concept as her watchword. Back as a mere militia huntress, she'd been scorned by her family, idolized at a fearful distance by the commoners, and rapidly grew to believe that everyone used everyone else.

She decided she did not want to be used, and made sure not to 'bother' her family in the long years since they flung her to the militia. After Tela grew up and became famous, of course, the Vasir fucking tripped over themselves trying to ingrate into her graces, and so did everyone else.

She tolerated them, but was as cruel and cold to them as they had been to her. The rest of her life was an unending wreck, no matter how well things seemed to be going. She excelled as a Spectre, but her personal life was in ruins. The one time she thought she'd found a lover turned into disaster when Thexius tried to get her to use her Spectre connections to help a turian separatist band. He'd nearly killed her and she'd had to kill him in self-defense, and his last words were to spit blood in her face and claim that she was too cruel to be loved, and that if she had been worth his love he'd have never used her.

After that, she was done with romance.

The linkage to the Broker had originally been an accident, and after long centuries of maintaining it, she was beginning to regret it. The most recent Broker was far crueler and more dangerous than the others, and his agents – Tetrimus, Tazzik, and others of that ilk – were disgusting criminals who delighted in carnage and terror and fear.

And now, of course, she was left truly alone in the galaxy. Her family was sunk into business ventures with the T'Soni and had no time. Her own cousin, and her most beloved aunt, perhaps the only person in the galaxy she actually loved, were brutally murdered by the Broker's people. Her Spectre partners were dead.

Her anger at the Broker had driven her to accept very few commissions, which was now beginning to pinch her finances and independence. So she ended up taking questionable missions like going after a sick fucking slaver and ended up with broken ribs, a pile of dead girls, and a headache.

She groaned, and then grimaced in anger as the commlink rang. "VI, I'm busy."

"The call is from the Consort, who is on your do-not-filter list."

Vasir rubbed her crests and grunted. "Audio only, please."

A few moments later, the voice of Sha'ira sounded into the wood-paneled bathing room. "I was told by my acolytes you had returned, but that your spirit was low and flickering, Moonbeam."

Vasir snorted, opening a bottle of crest gel and massaging it into the gaps in her crests. "You could say that. The mission was a clusterfuck and a bunch of little kids got killed because I wasn't fast enough….and didn't stop to think the fucker I was chasing was sick enough."

The soft voice was apologetic. "I am sorry to disturb your no-doubt self-recriminating reverie, but should I assume you need to … deal with things?"

Vasir leaned her head back until her crests met the backrest, letting gel clear from the gaps, removing dirt and filth. "… I need to get really drunk, and forget everything."

Sha'ira's voice tinged with worry. "I know that on some level you do not think very much of me, but I would … do my best with my words to bring you peace, if that would help. And my meldists are the best in the galaxy."

Vasir gave another snort. "Sha'ira, for a person you're very honest and open. The fact that I want to set the commoners on fucking Ilium on fire has nothing to do with you. And I'm sure your girls are just as trustworthy." She grimaced. "That being said, I think I need to stick to using the services of your non-asari. I have shit in my head I can't trust people with."

Sha'ira's voice dropped an octave, sounding darker and harder suddenly. "I understand…but I am not averse to the more … extreme options, if necessary. As much as I hate to admit it, there is a dancer and meldist in my current group who is working directly for P. I obtained the evidence this evening."

There was a long pause. "If you do not choose to indulge in her services, she's going to have an unfortunate accident in the next hour."

Vasir's lips thinned into a self-disgusted smile. "And people think you are so nice and fucking lovey." She ducked her head under the water, washing away the gel, and then wiped her face with the soft cloth at one side of the tub. "….yeah. She may know something useful. Set her aside; don't tell her who I am. I'm presuming you want me to kill her when I'm done?"

Sha'ira's voice was once again soft. "If it is not too much to ask. If you do not want to ruin your mood by killing, my own people can handle it.'

Vasir laughed. "Yeah, set it up. I'll come drink with you and listen to you tell me why I shouldn't kill myself after I'm done." She waved at the VI. "End call."

She let herself soak another few minutes before finally standing, and stepping out of the bathing pool. "VI, outfit nine, with the ballistic panels and the concealed shock darts in the boots. Have it set out with the silver-gray shawl of Aethyta."

The VI's voice murmured obedience as Vasir stared into the mirror, smiling bitterly at the reflection.

"How I wish you'd just die."


End file.
